phpMyAdmin is one the most popular, free and open source administration tool which can manage MySQL and MariaDB. It is licensed under GNU GPLv2. It has a web based interface and can be used on any platform easily. It is available in 79 languages. It is PHP based and is provided by almost all the Web hosting solution providers who supports WAMP/LAMP development stack.

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phpMyAdmin Replication tab handles the database replication. Marking one database as master database and other as slave databases is made easy using this feature.

• Master Replication − This section shows the master status and connected slaves status. We can add slave replication user as well using this section.

• Slave Replication − This section allows to add a slave using username, password, host and port details.

phpMyAdmin Storage Engines tab displays all the engines which are supported by MySQL server.

You cannot edit anything here. It is a readonly information. When we click on any engine name, it displays the details further. For example, when user clicks on the default engine myISAM, it displays as following −

phpMyAdmin provides an intuitive user interface to export database(s).

Click on Go button and phpMyAdmin will generate SQL required to create databases/tables and other relevant entities.

Instead of SQL, user can choose other popular options as well like csv, json, yaml etc.

Now select the custom option and phpMyAdmin will show lots of options like

• Databases − A list of databases to be selected. User can select multiple databases.

• Output − Options to save output to a file with customization options like name, charset, compression. It also provides options to skip large tables, rename exported databases/tables/columns and so on.

• Format Specific Options − Options to display/hide comments, enclose export in a transaction, export views as tables, export metadata and database selection for compatabilities and so.

• Object Creation Options − Options to add drop database/tables etc if exists, auto increment id, add create view, add create trigger statements, using backquotes to enclose table and column names etc.

• Data Creation Options − Options to truncate table before insert delayed statements and insert ignore statements. Options to choose format while preparing sql for insert data, set the maximum length of created query, dump timestamp columns in UTC etc.

phpMyAdmin provides an intuitive user interface to import database(s).

Choose a file to import. phpMyAdmin allows to import zip file as well as uncompressed file. Max size limit is 2GB. Click on Go button and phpMyAdmin will import the databases and show the success/failure/error messages accordingly.

Now select the custom option and phpMyAdmin will show lots of options like

• Partial Import − This option is very handy while importing large databases. It allows to prevent PHP timeout and allows to skip queries as well.

• Other Options − Options to check foreign integrity checks.

• Format − phpMyAdmin allows six differents format to be used in import process.

• Format Specific Options − Options to choose database specific formats. For zero values, auto increment can be disabled.

phpMyAdmin Variables tab handles nearly 600 variables of MySQL where we can edit set them on/off and update their values.

Click on edit button, and you can edit the variable value.

After updating the value, click on save button or press esc key to cancel.

An important point to note is that these variables can be edited only one user logged in as root user.

phpMyAdmin provides an intuitive user interface to manage and set settings for its interface.

Following is the description of various sections of Settings tab.

• Manage Your Settings − Main Dashboard shows the Import/Export and Reset Options. User can set up a setup script to do this process automatically as well. Script provide more fine grain control as well. Saved settings can be exported in JSON/PHP format or to browser storage and in similar fashion, it can be imported.

• Two Factor Authentication − Two factor authentication is very important for security purpose. It enables to authenticate user with additional authentication mechanism like HOTP and TOTP applications such as FreeOTP, Google Authenticator or Authy or using hardware security tokens supporting FIDO U2F, along with password authentication.

• Features − Features covers the configuration setting related to databases, text fields, page titles, warning messages, console and general settings like natural order, version checks etc.

• SQL Queries − Options related to SQL queries like show SQL queries, confirmation on drop queries and configurations on sql query box like to show explain SQL, create PHP Code, refresh options and so.

• Navigation Panel − Options covering navigation panel, navigation tree and to configure display settings for servers, databases and tables display.

• Main Panel − Options to customize startup screen, database structure, table structure, browse mode, edit mode, tabs and relational schema display.

• Export/Import − Options to customize export and import settings.

phpMyAdmin Charsets tab displays all the charsets and collations which are supported by MySQL server.

You cannot edit anything here. It is a readonly information.

phpMyAdmin Plugins tab displays all the plugins which are presently installed in MySQL server. It contains information like their version and description.

Plugins are broadly categorized in six categories −

• AUDIT

• AUTHENTICATION

• DAEMON

• FTPPARSER

• INFORMATION SCHEMA

• STORAGE ENGINE

If you click on any of the category, it will scroll to the related list of plugins.

phpMyAdmin Binary Logs tabs helps in checking the log history. It shows a glimpse of whatever we”ve done using phpMyAdmin.

Let”s select any binary logs file and click on Go button, It will display the logs history of that log file.

Here, you can check which activities has been carried out by phpMyAdmin behind the scene.